This Act provides the definition and classes of state pension, the organisation of state pension insurance, the bases for calculation of funds for state pension insurance, the bases for establishment and maintenance of the state pension insurance register, and the conditions and procedure for the grant, calculation and payment of state pensions.

(13.12.2000 entered into force 01.01.2001 - RT I 2000, 102, 674)

[...]

Chapter 7

Years of Pensionable Service

§ 18. Time included in years of pensionable service

(1) Time during which an employer is required to pay social tax shall be included in the years of pensionable service of a person.

(2) Years of pensionable service shall also include:

1) time during which a person is a member of an artistic association or trade union as of the time the person begins engaging in creative activity. As of 1 January 1991, time during which a person was or is engaged in creative activity shall be included in their length of service if social tax was or is paid;

2) the period of service of a person in the Defence Forces of Estonia, any period of service deemed to be equal thereto in accordance with the Defence Forces Service Act (RT I 1994, 23, 384; 1995, 18, 240; 62, 1056; 1996, 25, 519; 49, 953; 1997, 95/96, 1575), and any period of service in the employment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs;

3) time during which a person is in compulsory military service or compulsory alternative service;

4) time during which a person is enrolled in daytime study at a vocational educational institution, in full-time study at a university or institution of applied higher education, or in a form of study deemed to be equal thereto;

(13.01.1999 entered into force 23.01.1999 - RT I 1999, 10, 150)

5) time during which the spouse of a diplomat is in a foreign mission;

6) time during which a person cares for a Category I disabled person, a disabled child or a person under 18 years of age who is disabled since childhood, and time during which a mother, father, step-patent, guardian or actual caregiver of the child cares for a child under 3 years of age until the child attains 3 years of age;

(13.12.2000 entered into force 01.01.2001 - RT I 2000, 102, 674)

7) time during which a person receives unemployment benefit in a state employment office or participates in employment training organised by an employment office;

(08.12.1999 entered into force 01.01.2000 - RT I 1999, 97, 857)

8) time during which a person works in a church (congregation) or other registered religious organisation. As of 1 January 1991, such time shall be included in the length of service if social tax was or is paid;

9) time during which a person worked on a farm before its liquidation or before commencing work on a collective farm, state farm or elsewhere, if the person was at least 14 years of age;

10) time during which a person worked on a farm, if the farm was exempt from taxes in accordance with the Estonian SSR Farm Act (ENSV Teataja3 1989, 39, 611; RT I 1993, 72/73, 1021; 1994, 30, 465; 66, 1159);

11) for one parent or a step-parent or guardian or caregiver in a family, two years for every child whom he or she has raised for at least eight years;

(13.12.2000 entered into force 01.01.2001 - RT I 2000, 102, 674)

12) in the case of a person who participated in the armed fight for freedom against foreign occupation in the territory of the Republic of Estonia or was in hiding from unlawful repression, the time during which the person participated in the fight for freedom or was in hiding;

13) time during which a person works as a sole proprietor if social tax was or is paid;

14) time during which an employee or sole proprietor specified in clause 13) of this subsection is temporarily incapacitated for work.

(3) The following shall be included in the years of pensionable service under favourable conditions:

1) time a rehabilitated person spent while unlawfully in custody, in a penal institution or in exile, multiplied by three;

2) time a person spent held as a prisoner of war, or in a concentration camp or ghetto during the Second World War, or in a labour and construction battalion or labour and construction unit in 1941-1942, multiplied by three;

3) time from when a rehabilitated person was freed from custody or a penal institution or returned from exile until he or she is granted the permission to settle in Estonia, if the right to live in Estonia was taken away from the person unlawfully, multiplied by one and a half;

(13.12.2000 entered into force 01.01.2001 - RT I 2000, 102, 674)

4) the duration of employment in a leper house or institution for plague control, multiplied by two;

(13.12.2000 entered into force 01.01.2001 - RT I 2000, 102, 674)

5) in the case of a person who was subject to forced displacement from Sõrve peninsula in Saaremaa to Germany in October or November 1944, the time from displacement until settling in Estonia, but not longer than until 31 December 1946, multiplied by three.

(13.12.2000 entered into force 01.01.2001 - RT I 2000, 102, 674)

(4) Activities provided for in this section which took place in the territory of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics up to 1 January 1991 shall be included in the years of pensionable service if the person has completed at least fifteen years of pensionable service in Estonia or the accumulation period of the person acquired in Estonia is at least fifteen years.

(5) The years of pensionable service provided for in this section shall be taken into account until 31 December 1998.

§ 19. Calculation of years of pensionable service

(1) Pensionable service is calculated in full years. If the length of service is at least six months, it shall be rounded to a full year, except in the cases specified in subsection (2) of this section.

(2) Calculation of the length of service which grants the right to receive an old-age pension, pension for incapacity for work or survivor’s pension is based on unrounded years of pensionable service.

(3) The Government of the Republic shall approve the instructions for certification of years of pensionable service.

[...]

Chapter 15

Final Provisions

[...]

§ 57. Entry into force of Act

(1) This Act enters into force on 1 April 2000.

(08.12.1999 entered into force 01.01.2000 - RT I 1999, 97, 857)

(2) Sections 20, 28-34, 47 and 54 of this Act enter into force on 1 January 1999.